As Human Trafficking Awareness Month comes to a close, I’d say there was a much larger presence of those focused on this issue and those others which can be the beginning steps to trafficking. I’d like to remind everyone that for those who have or are trying to survive the influence human trafficking has left on their sense of personal value and the survival behaviors learned while you are trapped.

Human beings, like other animals, adapt to their surroundings. Our inner most sense is that of survival itself. So let me ask this; ‘When you are so engulfed by constant explosive and almost deadly violence wouldn’t you become quite submissive to survive? How long do you think you could hang on? How bad would it be when you started praying for them to kill you and end your misery? You survive the best you possibly can, but if there is no sign of help or hope, you pray they kill you so you are free!!

This is the life you learn to endure and the behaviors of the human being will naturally adapt to keep you alive. Let me assure you; those who do survive rarely just walk the door of trafficking and live life like what is needed to adapt in ‘normal’ everyday neighborhoods. Without residential recovery services like those provided by Eden’s Glory & Grounds of Grace, among others; going from ‘The Life’ to a self sustaining life is usually filled with a path of addiction, mental illness, extreme emotional distress, lack on interpersonal skills, and a continued submissive behavior (despite how hard we try to cover that up). There is rarely any money available from the trafficker to pay for services needed to help their victims, so this burden lies on the shoulders of those who want to help. These are usually provided by nonprofit services who need funding from you and I; they are struggling for funding to help create more functional and self supporting individuals. The end result of their services will change the lives of these persons and the lives of their children and grandchildren.

When you are trapped in this way of life, you learn to live in a ‘Survive vs Suicide’ mode of thinking. The pain becomes so bad physically and emotionally that you pray they kill you just to put you out of your misery. You hope for a way out and if you run into the arms of another person, you are extremely lucky if that is a kind person who truly wants to keep you safe and learn how to live on your own. More common than not you end of up going straight to the arms of another abuser, usually a domestic relationship that starts off being really kind and your survival habits make you more tolerable of acts of control or degrading remarks. These are dismissed and before you know it, one day they take a swing. The first strike is always the most difficult one, so the second will be much easier and more aggressive. This will take over your relationship and become your existence at least two or three times a week. Your holidays will be taken over by the threat or possibility of violence. You will rarely defend yourself and even less likely to leave because of those few good moments you share. You tell yourself, ‘He does love me. He is good to me most of the time. He just gets angry. If I don’t do this, or I stop doing that, he will stop hitting me. Just so long as he doesn’t leave me alone, doesn’t kick me out, doesn’t cheat on me, doesn’t hurt my kids. This is the way of life for those who have been so violently and violated in the life of trafficking.

How is a person who has grown up in this type of threatening environment and distorted behaviors supposed to choose the right relationships or live a stable everyday life? How are they supposed to learn to associate in common social and professional environments? If we do not ensure funding for shelters and rebuilding services for young and old, victims of family violence, sexual harm, and trafficking, then we cannot just expect them to be self sufficient and become a member of the family, become a parent or a teacher, become a police officer or a social services caseworker without some turmoil and dysfunctional behavior.

Now believe me it is possible for those who have gone through this tragic way of life, especially as children or teens, and then become a parent without any support or family around to help them. We learn to isolate ourselves out of the heavy shame and disgust we carry for our past. We can’t just open our mouths and say; ‘I was forced to have sex with a lot of men from a very young age’. Do you have any idea the level of courage it takes to say these words? If it had happened to you, could you just sit down to dinner and say this to a mother in-law, or an uncle? Could you go see your priest one time and tell him these words? Could you go to a stranger, a doctor, or an employer trying to explain why you’re ill all the time or having so much trouble?

This is why it’s important for survivors of these types of traumatic events seek help. It’s why it’s important to find your voice and help others find their own light. It’s why we need the services of Violence Prevention Center, Hoyleton Youth & Family,DHS, SAVE, Call for Help, PAVE, The Women’s Center, RAINN, ChildHelp, NAASCA, and other leading local and national organizations. All of them continue to put their hearts into the mission of saving lives and rebuilding lives, healing generations every single day. I’m very proud today to say that now we also have Butterfly Dreams Alliance, an incredible team who have joined me in creating a prevention and rebuilding nonprofit service for families & professional education in Southern Illinois.

Today my life has come full circle. I am no longer trapped and praying for death. I am no longer contemplating survive vs suicide. I am 55 years old, I am in the best relationship of my life. I have three beautiful grown amazing children. I have three amazing grandchildren. I have made hundreds of inspiring and supportive friends across the country. We have fought to update and change policies & statutes together. We are creating more known knowledge about the human mind and the human heart in every survivor we encourage along the way.

Today my life is truly free and I am so thankful that I did not miss the dance it has given me. Please help those services in your area and across the country!!!

Think about that statement for a moment. We are here to ask our friends, neighbors, colleagues, resources, professionals, first responders, care givers, – absorb the power of this horrific statement. This isn’t just an offense busted by FBI stings and plaguing other countries. This is what you and I see everyday, in communities where the same people do the same things day after day. The beginning steps are the common societal actions and behaviors we have been teaching are acceptable throughout human history. We may not know what the exact list from the experts tells us to look for, but more often than not those first beginning levels of what is and can become human trafficking, enslavement, forced servitude of another human being; regardless of what we want to admit or what we see in the welfare of another person, we need to care enough to intervene early and bring attention to the distress you see in your community. Only rarely do we have the occasion in small communities to be suddenly sold or exploited.

In modern day slavery we don’t just need our justice system ready to take on these offenders and put them away, we need to change our everyday way of thinking about what happens around us. The actions that happen to people we know, people we care about. Not just to our teens and children, but old and young, male and female. If we want any of our social care and justice systems to work, then we have a duty as everyday citizens to take accountability – report offenses that you DO recognize and make certain to do it early. If we do not have educators, medical professionals, law enforcement, neighbors, friends, even family ; those who are the ones most likely to see the signs of distress, then we can not expect to change the possible terrorizing acts which they might be trying to survive in everyday.

You – you are the person who will first see or recognize something that causes alarm. You have a duty to intervene, to question that person’s welfare, and if you’re unsure take it to an advocate or make some Google searches to understand what signs you are seeing what what it is that might be turning your gut inside out every time you’re around it or see a possible lost soul on the streets, in our businesses, working on our farms, attending our schools, or even when they are coming in for basic mandatory physicals. It’s our time to watch out for the common daily signs of distress.

Understand that I absolutely know what it is like to go through days, weeks, years; waiting, hoping, praying someone would care enough to do something. Someone would believe that I mattered enough as a human being to at least question the multitude of acts and harms they did see almost daily for years. Believe me, I am just one of the millions of adult survivors of these types of daily horrors. When you are inside this type of environment and being dismissed or overlooked by everyone around you, it’s really difficult to believe that you have a voice to ask for help. Young kids, don’t have a clue how to put into words what’s happening until around 16 or so. All they can do is keep trying to get through each day. More often than not – THEIR SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON THEIR SILENCE!!

The common everyday things that happened to me were kind of accepted in Freeburg, just like it is in the rural communities I still see today. It was just the way we raised our kids and took our rage out on our family. In most communities today, there is always one family the town talks about and judges. My family was that family!!!

There were years that instead of looking at how much they despised my stepfather and what they actually witnessed him doing on a regular basis. Instead of questioning what they witnessed my mother allowing to happen to her little girl, in the condition of her daily needs and care; instead people decided that I should be judged, I should be shamed. Both the adults and the schoolmates condemned and whispered about who I was and the things they heard. They kept their daughters away from our home and refused to let their sons date or hang out with me. In a small community just like what we see in our rural areas everyday; I was that child and teen girl who carried the reputation with boys and adult men by the time I was 13 years old.

It happened at the bar where my mother worked for years. It happened in the private parties with boys I went to school with and who saw me almost everyday. He would arrange it all at our home with a case of beer, giving me solid instructions on how to entice them, then tell him all the gory details when he returned home with my mother. This very known and discussed activity then became private parties late at night in our home, with sometimes 10 or more adult men from the local coalmine. My younger sister trying to sleep in the other room. My mother going in to watch TV in her bedroom; telling me to have a good time as she walked away when his call came in with instructions of what to wear, what to get prepared, even putting the porn movie in the VCR. This happened not because my mother was terrorized or forced to let it happen, but rather because she didn’t want to try and survive with three children on her own, and eventually because she didn’t mind using me as her family caretaker and housekeeper.

It wasn’t just chores we give our kids today. It was every single day and every moment of my day. It wasn’t just the occasional dusting or vacuuming. It was give her a toothbrush to scrub the corners and keep her here busy until I’m ready to send her to bed. Don’t give her a toothbrush or give a damn if she cares for herself at all.

The men got me drunk, the porn was on the television, they passed me around from lap to lap. They got me high, guiding me for this one do this or that one to do that. Around 3 or 4 am, I might be told to go out to the camper on the back of my stepfather’s pickup parked right in front of our house.

Keep in mind we lived in the center of this small town for six consecutive years when his violent reign of terror and the complete neglect of any human kindness was at it’s absolute worst. This type of exploitation, enslavement, sharing, trafficking happened between 11 to 17 before I escaped. He was at that time planning to put me in a trailer, on a private lot, with a new lock and his own private key so we could have ‘our’ parties anytime. I ran the first chance I got; ran into the arms of a man 7 yrs older who beat me, strangled me, almost drowned me, and left me hogtied in a bedroom for 10 hours, dead-bolted in a second floor apartment while he went to work and out for drinks. I’ve had more weapons held to my head than I can count, the first around age nine. Like many from violent homes I rant into the waiting arms of another violent abuser. All with the aide of what I was manipulated with as a child; years of weed and alcohol to cover up the pain. No matter the suffering I must act like I had always been taught; silent, submissive, even protective of my tormentor.

All of the interactions happened for the price of a case beer or perhaps just a couple of glasses at the bar. This was my value, this was the identity that every single person who witnessed the very worst of these offenses unknowingly or knowingly, helped create in just one young girl. Each had their part and in those so easily dismissed and accepted acts they trained a child to become a human being who lived ‘in servitude of others’ until I was about 45 years old.

The young servitude was taught as I grew up to be the only person in our home expected to answer the ring of that little brass bell for years. Constantly, every single day. No wonder my homework was barely done. No wonder I couldn’t concentrate or felt so different, so socially inept around everyone else. No wonder I could barely exist in your world. The only thing I could think about was how to survive the next damn thing that was going to happen.

During these years I was attacked almost daily. It was so brutally dominating and fearful, that it wasn’t even safe to bathe or take any time to care for myself. For five years I barely took a washcloth to my face, let alone my body.. I was a kid who attended the same school system, walked around in the same small community, who associated with the same people everyday. I was covered in filth, my front teeth rotted out and broken, my skin covered in sores; ugly infected rashes that have left me scarred and broken with many troubling health conditions today. They saw years of physical violence; bruises across my back and legs from the leather belt he had sliced up to beat me with. Once I got that beating for putting on a pair of my brother’s button up flannel pajamas because I thought they might protect me from him somehow; like a suit of magic armor he wouldn’t be able to touch me. Believe me, I didn’t dare put them on ever again.

So now I ask you; what types of distressful behaviors do you see happening or going on with one of the people or kids you interact with everyday. What do you see on the surface? What do you think might be happening beneath the surface to control that person in such a dominant and cruel fashion? Now let me ask – Why in the hell is it still happening today, everyday.? Not just here in Southern Illinois, but in every little rural and perceived safe community across the country. For thousands – this is everyday life happening in your backyards. There are enslaved, young and old, both male & female; these are the common early steps that become the larger tragedy of human trafficking. There are at risk kids in every apartment building, rich private home, or rundown trailer park. They are trying to endure until they can somehow find a way to somehow escape and live like everybody else.

Let me remind you; You might be the only one who sees something, or is courageous enough to report something that might first bring attention to any form of those early controlling, neglectful, threatening, servitude acts that happen. We can’t expect our Social Service workers to just walk in and suddenly take action or investigate something, until we make absolutely certain we are reporting it. Take names and numbers, then follow up to make sure they’re doing their job and holding them accountable. Keep reporting and if they still want listen, discuss it with others who witness these acts or who might be able to help them. Our leading research & health organizations have data on trauma which has been collected for the past ten years. The ones who are responsible for assisting and investigating are just as accountable for their actions and decisions, as you and I are accountable for what we tolerate and teach through our silence.

I beg you, I beg everyone across the country; it’s time to pick ourselves up by the boot-heels and create the society we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in. A society of equality, with true possibility that they can actually succeed in their dreams. To be courageous enough to dream and feel self worthiness. Teach them to believe they actually matter; their life actually matters to the most close knit circle around each and every one of us.

I really want to thank all of you for listening to me here, and the Women’s Center for permitting me to speak at this amazing event. Hopefully you’ll think about everything you’ve felt or heard here today; the empowering energy we have felt together. We really must begin somewhere and this change will take on whatever momentum for community and family wellness that we decide to put into it. We can honestly take accountability and decide whether we will or will not permit harmful and despicable acts among us as a society of incredible human beings. No one deserves this hell for a life. No one should be so easily, casually, or grudgingly dismissed within our communities and closest circles.

When you ask yourself what can I do about Modern Day Slavery, Exploitation, Servitude, Human Slavery, Human Trafficking; please remember to just do something. Look beneath the surface of what you do see. Be the one a shining light on the acts that destroy and cycle through what we see in the common everyday dysfunctions and behaviors that lead our children into danger, our streets filled with crime, a society using deadly drugs and addictions to cover up the pain, mental & physical health problems that might just be our remaining injuries and wounds from the traumas we endured; at least for the ones who actually survive. The ones who aren’t living so isolated and tormented they are driven to complete the acts of suicide, simply because they are suffering but no one is hearing their trapped voices and their rolling silent tears. If we want to be the beginning of a new way, an equal and humane way in our society, then when are we really going to start being the voice of hope and change? Are we going to decide to continue this massive cycle of life altering learned behaviors and distress of others?

Thank you, to everyone who has believed in my voice. You are now my energy and my hope, you are colleagues or resources I depend on to do the very best I can; will those reading this also join us? Today I’m finally starting to believe in my worthiness as a human being. Today I believe in my worthiness of life, without expectation of dominance and servitude.

Be well, Live Free & Really Dream Big because you are the minds and the hearts that will make any possibility of change a reality for the magic that lies within each and every human being on this amazing place called Earth. Always believe anything is possible with you in the active equation of life!!!

It’s been a three year battle here in Illinois, but finally Gov Rauner now has two bills SB189 Sex Crime Against Children Statute of Limitations & SB1842 Involuntary Servitude of a Child & Trafficking in Persons Statute of Limitations updates. Thankfully Rep Jay Hoffman never gave up and stayed determine. Thankfully AG Madigan created update “Hastert Law” Criminal Sexual Abuse & Criminal Sexual Assault of a child. I’m truly grateful to have been a part of these updates. I know it will help many survivors who choose to seek justice.

Going public in your local area to seek justice takes great courage, especially when these offenses are grievous and terroristic. The crucial part is that we are finally recognizing the longterm effect and providing time for the adult person to process what’s happened, put their many shattered pieces back together and then make the best decision for them. Not all have felt relief when facing their childhood offender in the courtroom, it doesn’t change what they did or the way it changed your path, but it should always be the choice of the once victim to decide.

I am a strong, outspoken, determined survivor, National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse, Midwest Regional Ambassador; Speaker, Trainer, Mentor, Resource, Researcher and Author. It’s so important we continue to get this news out there. If we cannot make hearing about these crimes, either through news or TV programming; will the victims ever feel like they can come forward and be supported rather than condemned and judged. If we are going to change this learned human behavior against others, against children; we have to be willing to address the issue head on, with the support network ready to heal wounded parents so we can raise healthier children with a more positive family influence.

Right now it is an estimated $150 Billion per year Taxpayer Burden in the lifetime recovery of victims; Education, Employment, Addictions, Medical & Mental Health, Early Disability, Independent Living Challenges. These are the services needed to clean up the mess of a destroyed human being. If we intervene early and provide the appropriate services per the individual and family needs, then we provide a healthier path and a more positive possible individual success; thus drastically lowering the longterm financial burden of recovery. The longer a person lives in a harmful environment the more likely they are to act out against others, use drugs, early pregnancy, state assistance, low level employment. I believe in the quote: “It is more difficult to rebuild a broken adult than it is to raise a healthy child’

Here’s hoping that more education in the Trauma Informed Response & Care; we can empower others to influence victims to stop their own personal cycle from their past trauma and then encourage the communities to provide needed services. As a Human Initiative we can finally make a difference in the historically taught harmful and destructive actions against others, but alone we can only hope to empower a few.

Thank you Representative Jay Hoffman & AG Lisa Madigan for staying determined. Thank you to all the House & Senate leaders who voted to finally update our Statute of Limitations for these offenses. It will not do anything for my case, but I’m certain it will assist many others just by giving them a chance to cope through all that’s happened. Finally we are announcing to those who have abused or trafficked a child; you can be brought to justice at any time; states across the country are updating their statutes and how they prosecute these heinous crimes against children.

Hoffman Passes Legislation to Crack Down on Human Trafficking of Minors

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Under legislation passed by state Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, individuals suspected human traffickers will no longer be able to evade prosecution in cases involving minors due to a technicality in the law.

“Many victims of human trafficking do not have the support structures intact to be able to seek prosecution within a year of turning 18, putting them at an extreme disadvantage,” Hoffman said. “To think that the criminals who commit these horrible acts can get off due to a technicality in the law is unconscionable.”

Hoffman’s measure, Senate Bill 1842, increases the amount of time that a prosecutor has to bring charges against the perpetrator of these heinous crimes. Under current law, prosecutors only have one year after they turn 18 to file charges, Hoffman’s legislation increases that to 25 years.

“The children who are victims of these crimes will deal with a lifetime of trauma and suffering,” said Patricia McKnight, child trafficking survivor and Midwest Regional Director with the National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse. “We need to be doing everything we can to make sure victims see the perpetrators of these heinous crimes brought to justice and this proposal will help make that happen.”

Senate Bill 1842 passed the House and the Senate is currently waiting to be signed into law by the governor.

“When we dismiss a Family Offender, especially if the outburst becomes grievous or terrorizing; who will teach our children there is help? What path of life will they believe they deserve? Will they grow knowing only to harm their family or will they always allow someone to terrorize them?

Their life path could be drugs, violent outbursts, criminal behavior, maybe gangs and murder; perhaps they will endure silent suffering in extreme depression, or other form of mental illness….This survivor is not trying to take the stage, she is trying to give the stage to the severity of our community violence and sadly how our refusal to address this issue continues teaching silence, tolerance, and acceptance of what’s inside their worst nightmare everyday.

This survivor is using her terrifying life; the enslaved battered child who was shared and traded, used and abandoned, attempted suicide, and continued tolerance of almost murderous attacks, including weapons constantly threatening her daily survival. ‘Trecia Ann’ hopes she can encourage the lost, broken, wounded parents and grandparents today. Let’s open the door, address the inner suffering and become a positive force in your child’s life. They will live in manners taught through our parenting, and leave your home with the life skills you have ingrained; what will be their perceptions of life?

Remember the silence and disregard of the abuses around us, creates what can become the most dangerous crimes in our communities.

‘Yes, I come from a different generation and since that time, throughout the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s we have learned a lot about the detrimental impact to our human psyche when we are violated and harmed. However, these same studies & statistics show these types of destructive crimes are still happening inside many neighborhoods, apartment buildings, and in our families across the nation. This is what has become a heart wrenching process in trying to bring this topic to the forefront of our legislative leaders, social services, all medical professionals, educators, and law enforcement today.’

In the first interview McKnight shares some of her personal journey growing up inside a house of hell, while an entire community and school system watched as she was traded, shared, exploited and brutally attacked inside her home. In part two you will hear about how early onset PTSD could possibly be misdiagnosed as ADHD. You will hear about her partners who are strong resources of their own; they are finding victims being trafficked/shared by family, beaten and abandoned as she was back then. You will hear about the legislation proposal currently being reviewed by Illinois leaders, hoping to update Prosecution & Statutes when dealing with Family Offenders.

Her story is one which most readers, even survivors, are shocked in disbelief that a mother or a community could be so uncaring about a child. However, the scars that cover her body, the mouth filled with broken (half repaired) teeth, and the ten years in trauma recovery therapy are most definitely proof of just how extreme it actually was for her. Her stepfather was feared by all. Her mother played the perfect impression of his victim. Her siblings were not like her in anyway.

Tragically for this little girl, she was given to her stepfather like property by a narcissistic mother who forced the child into constant family servitude actually purchased a little brass bell for her husband which only ‘Trecia Ann’ was expected to answer. She scrubbed the corners of their family home with a toothbrush every weekend, but she was never given one to brush her teeth or permitted safe time for any personal care or hygiene. She was neglected of all basic human needs, including the most basic need; the crying child begging for her mother’s love and protection.

Please read her story, the first five chapters free, “My Justice’ on Authorhouse.com/Amazon & Barne’s Nobel. Watch the two new personal discussions via Youtube, or join in an upcoming event to hear her speak about the trauma that can exist within our homes.

We changed the name but not the measures. No one approved of the name ‘Family Terrorist Act’ – so we changed it to ‘Family Crimes Act’. However, we still hold firm in our guidelines and measures to introduce the acts of ‘terroristic’ abuse.

Don’t you ever get fed up of the way abusive, violent and/or sexual problems keep harming persons inside your family, your continued bloodline? How many of us have kids suffering in bad relationships, harmful marriages, personally destructive acts such as; drugs, alcohol, mental health problems and other such challenges. Does your family have a history of these dysfunctions? Perhaps your mother, father, brother, sister, grandparent have all dealt with either violence or sexual harm? I don’t understand how so many of us have been terrorized by parents & family, but still our society turns away.

On average it was back in the early 1960’s we started reviewing and collecting data on these types of issues, although we certainly didn’t address the seriousness of the types of actions; nor have we addressed them as being crimes. However, there is constant overwhelming medical, financial, and prosecutorial challenges and burdens as a direct result of these crimes in our country alone; yet they seem to be the most lenient of punishments in our system. We call persons we DON’T know, who commit acts like this, MONSTERS. However, when it is a parent, family member, partner, spouse; we just turn away and tell our kids not to say anything to anyone about it. We tell them that even though these acts are some of the most horrific, graphic, and brutally detrimental; there is no need to address them, ‘just shut up and get over it already’.

How much longer are we willing to do this? How many more lives will be impacted by these life wounding, taught human cruelties? How many more will commit suicide or live as if death & destruction is what they deserve, because no one has ever seemed to care about just how bad it really was, or still is, for them? How much longer will it take for our society to be concerned enough to stand firm, stand united, and help those we know are suffering even if it’s just within YOUR FAMILY.

Illinois General Assembly Member, House Representative Jay Hoffman is ready to present one amendment from our drafted guidelines in the ‘Family Crimes Act’ – Trecia’s Law, in the April deliberations of House Bill 3242, Criminal Statutes 2012. In this bill is the added amendment changing Illinois Statute of Limitations for the criminal act of Involuntary Sexual Servitude, along with a barrage of other sexual crimes against a child.

Illinois Statute of Limitations of sexual crimes against children, including Involuntary Sexual Servitude; changes from 1 year of victim’s 18th birthday – to 20 years from the date of victim’s 18th birthday.

This is a huge measure, finally our criminal system is addressing the intense impact on the victim’s ability to face the ongoing issues of enforced silence or disassociation to the severity of lifetime negative influence as a direct result of these types of ‘terroristic’ abuses. This change allows victim’s time to process trapped emotions from past Criminal Assaults, either physical, emotional, and/or sexual.

Please contact your Illinois Legislators today!! Let’s start right here, right where it happened against ‘Trecia Ann’ and so many others just like her.

Tell your legislators to VOTE YES House Bill 3242.

Outside of Illinois, contact your Political Representatives and tell them we want to introduce Federal Law across the country to protect rights against Family Crimes, including and especially, the acts of ‘terroristic’ abuse.

Tell Your Legislators –

One Federal Process of Prosecution & Policy Mandates across the country.

We have on average about 40 Million Adult Survivors, in the U.S. alone. This is estimated because we will never know just how many have been terrorized, shamed, or abandoned to carry dark secrets and life lived patterns of self destruction as a direct result of those which our family, friends, and community members have ignored throughout mankind’s history. We do not have to continue this path. We have a choice to Act in Protection or to Teach Tolerance & Silence. All we have to do is put our foot down; draw our line in the sand; absolutely stand united and strong as one human society to end this ongoing cycle, which is much like our own human cancer invading again and again, generation after generation. Will we continue to ask ‘Why does this have to hurt so many?’, or will we finally look that child in the face and ask; ‘What happened?’

What’s causing you to be so angry at everyone?

What’s causing you to be so sexually aggressive?

What’s causing you to hurt yourself with drugs, alcohol, cutting, and promiscuous behaviors?

Learn about the growing challenges and the Multi Billion Dollar Annual Burden on our United States Financial Deficit, on average 140 Billion Dollars Every Year of taxpayer monies used in the lifetime prevention and recovery costs related to Child Abuse, Domestic/IP Violence, and Human Trafficking. Let’s put that money to good use and better direct exactly how funds are distributed to prosecute and assist in life skills training and fear related trauma recovery for victims and families who deal with these types of issues. Let’s educate ourselves and learn to connect the dots in our human history and the detrimental behaviors we continue to teach in the forced silence, societal acceptance, and refusal to address these harmful influences, even if its just to change things in your family.

Here you’ll find a fabulous presentation we’ve developed from the past five years of studied information, along with the life long-lived in the generational impact of some of the most extremely detrimental and disgusting abuses, which some 200 persons or more have personally shared.

‘Family Crimes’ – the true human horror; presentation created by Patricia McKnight; supported by Dana Pfeiffer, Exec. Director Grounds of Grace and Lisa Chilton, Legal Advocacy Director Violence Prevention Center of SW Illinois. Helping to educate & initiate community awareness in the prevention and recovery services for those dealing with some type of negative impact from acts associated to Family Crimes or Terroristic Abuse. We will present for your employees, guidance counselors, community members, and healthcare or law enforcement responders.

Help us end the growing cycle of what is now more than 3.7 million reports annually for crimes against children. Together we can all do something to aid in the prevention of these acts, even if its just directly with our family members alone. However, it is crucial we address this as a societal issue as well. Our youth are exploding with dysfunction, rage, criminal and gang related violence. How much longer will you look away when things like this are affecting the lives of your neighbors, your community, or your family?

We are a human society and each have equal rights to life, liberty and security of person; without regard to date of birth, religion, race, or gender. Do not turn away simply because you have been taught to believe; its just another family issue, its nothing that will do any permanent harm.

This is no joke my friends. In January I was asked to present for the Illinois Department of Public Health; April 8th for the Women’s Health & Family Wellness. Unbelievably the lead coordinator for this conference contacted me last week and stated they would have to cancel. When I asked upfront if it was something specific about my story or my presentation, she quickly responded;

‘Your story is really a bit too much in your face. Perhaps if you tone it down a bit and focus more on what we can do to help, then maybe we can invite you back. We’ll keep you on the list of presenters and see what happens.

Let me say first, any time that anyone has asked me to speak – all they have wanted is my horrific victim story. I have learned how to ease my story through but it’s not an easy feat, especially when you consider the true horrific nature of the story itself and how many persons circled through my childhood and adult relationships without ever saying a word.

Quickly I emailed this lead coordinator the presentation I have used to help more than 100 survivors, used on more than 200 radio shows, and have built a website for educational & empowerment for every person. It is NOT a VICTIM’S STORY. In fact, it is ‘Steps to Recovery’.

In this presentation I share first our protective law history, the stats of some 2.3 million discarded reports because the sole intake worker decided they didn’t warrant further investigation. The presentation also covers the very serious truth about molestation, a crime which leaves no physical trace. When someone has molested a child, there is rarely any trace because it’s not like rape. It is touching and groping, therefore without seeing a child’s physical response to another person, or listening to how they play and interact with other children or their toys; you may never know your child is being molested. If the person/s molesting the child are the parents/guardians, then this child may have been going through this since before they can remember. It could be that sexual contact and stimulation is all they know. If they have just started being molested, you will see the outward signs of trauma and challenges in the child’s appearance, interactions, and their school work.

Anyway, also in the presentation I go through the Five Steps of Recovery which came from what I had to do in order to help myself change from victim to victorious. These are goal lists, positivity lists, understanding the impacts of my specific trauma, and it is the work which VICTIMS have to do, NO ONE ELSE CAN DO THIS FOR THEM. It is about empowering every victim with the one thing taken from them which leaves them in a victim state of life, it is about teaching them to use their voice and not to be ashamed of what someone else has done to them. It is not a crime they did but rather a crime committed AGAINST THEM.

Think about this for a moment, if we tell victims they need to ease up on the facts of what someone else has done to them, isn’t this the same as the abuser telling them that no one cares, no one wants to hear, no one will help them? In my eyes, having gone through my own very challenging and life pattern changing recovery; silencing a victim is like putting them in a cage with a bowl of water and a blanket for comfort. It’s like gagging them and only letting them talk when you want to hear them. It’s like taking away their power and their strength to find their balance again. It’s very hard for a victim to find trust and safety to speak at all. They must reach deep down inside to find that one point of them that they feel matters and then believe that someone else will think that it matters as well.

Now, having the Public Health Department tell me that they had professionals who had seen video of me, had seen photos and read a few emails; then decided my story was just too ugly to sit through. If we cannot educate the professionals about the honest truth of how vicious these crimes within our homes, hidden under the parental control and inflicted terror against a child; if we cannot be honest then how will we ever teach our children that they have nothing to be ashamed of? How will we teach them to tell someone when they are being touched, probed, sold, traded, beaten and degraded by the people they live with, the persons who control their very existence? I ask you friends, although we should definitely use age appropriate measures when talking with our kids about these topics, how can we teach them if the professionals do not want to hear the details of their suffering?

I very much believe that the voice of a victim is the one solid tool which will lead them to feel victorious in their life. One step at a time they learn that as they release the details of their suffering that are no longer afraid of the sledge hammer of hell coming down to destroy them. It is the locked up silence which traps them in living a victim pattern of life. This much I’ve learned in the years of not having insurance or money for a therapist so I lay in bed crying for days, screaming about the how & why of what happened to me, why wasn’t I worthy of protecting as they protected my siblings? Why did I have to be a slave, forced to answer the ring of that little brass bell, whatever the ‘master’ needed? Why was I the only one forced to spend days scrubbing the corners of our house, then two years after I move out, the house is so over run with roaches, not even the exterminator can keep up with the battle? Why didn’t it matter that I was covered with filth and infection, my teeth black, plaque covered and broken, my body covered in bruises day after day? Why didn’t someone in that town help me, why didn’t I matter as a human being?

Because no one ever stepped up to say; ‘Hey Trecia Ann, you don’t deserve to be treated like this. You deserve to be safe, take a bath in your home, a toothbrush, some tenderness.’ Sadly as a result of all those people who either witnessed or took part in the sadistic games with me as the prize, but yet not one ever found me worthy to acknowledge as a human being; it is these types of actions which led me to believe this was my life. This is was what I deserved, and I should never think that I deserve anything better. It is all of this that left me living in a victim state of mind. I was everyone’s perfect victim and completely submissive for any person who showed me a hint of kindness. I just wanted to be loved, to be safe, and I would give anything of myself to not have someone hurt me, even to the point of regulating my breathing so as not to give cause for another attack.

I know many exactly like me and I hope you have taught the children you know the true power of their voice and our professionals need to know how monsters like this make it their mission to silence their victims. As ridiculous as it may sound, my stepfather still has me terrified of my afterlife; afraid that I might have to endure him all over again. This is a real fear for me. This is how evil and how horrific his actions were and not a single person in the middle of that town would ever want to hear my voice, my plea for mercy, my begging my mother’s help, my prayers for God to take me away.

Readers, I hope as you’ve read this it made some sense and that you will watch the children in your circle of life and family. I assure you, I am not the only survivor of such atrocities. I assure you, evil like this is happening in the smallest of communities across the country. As many advocates I work and share with have found, more cases of parental child sex trafficking & web-based exploitation of their children is happening in small communities across the country. The internet has a lot of great uses, but the deviate mind who wants to make money; they find that charging people to watch them molest, traffick and exploit their children is sadly more than our services can possibly take down. All of us within a community need to be aware of the children in our neighborhood. Do they seem like good kids? Are their people coming and going at all hours? Is there a lot of adult men and strangers coming to the house? Our educators can help by watching how the child’s school work is completed, are they up to date, interact in class, have reasonable social skills with others, are they reasonably clean and well cared for?

Our health care professionals & law enforcement are the frontline for their safety. You need to know how dark it can become and exactly what adults will go through to silence a child for what can turn into decades of their life, remember the fear and silence has to outlast any statute of limitations so that the predator is never held accountable or prosecuted for their harm done. We should never tell ANY victim to be quiet, ‘tone it back’, ‘get over it’. They may want to have us ease our stories, but for this victim who has worked so hard to become victorious and put every ounce of devotion possible into helping make sure we are able to help others trapped today, the frontline defenders will not tell this victim; ‘it just doesn’t matter’.

To me this reprehensible, and it feels a lot like the weapon and slap used to silence me a long time ago.

If I’ve ever needed you to help me at all, I most certainly need you now. With your support we can change the future for our children, give families much needed resources & support, help victims receive justice, and hold these types of offenders accountable for their choice to attack & terrorize persons they are supposed to love & protect. We need a huge #media blast and I don’t really have the skills to put that together. Friends give me your support for this measure today!!

Let’s let our human history be our teacher and give our families the safety, protection, justice and appropriate services many of them are trying to cope with today; trying to survive with their personal attacker just one more day, hoping someone will care enough to hear their silent screams. They cannot take the chance of speaking out because if they are not assisted and their monster finds out, they will certainly have a huge price to pay.

Every survivor can tell you about the different levels of abuse inside the family. Some are ugly acts but are not overwhelmingly controlling through threats with weapons or other types of extreme fear or even imposed risk of severe bodily harm. However there are many homes who live every day in this type of constant extreme fear. This is the definition of what our ‪#‎government‬ refers to as ‪#‎Terrorism‬. Why do none of our prosecuting systems and recovery for mental health & physical injuries ever direct this into their special focus? Our society has become trained & numbed about some of these vicious attacks within our home. We do not like to think about a parent using their child in such evil ways or harming them in extreme violent acts. I get that, but we cannot deny what has been proven in many studies shared by the National Institute of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, the Centers for Disease and Control, even in the voices of many thousands of survivors today. We are finally beginning to hear stories of brutal acts throughout an entire generation of pain filled lives because so many of us looked away and did nothing to enforce our #Politicians, #Elected Officials to hold these crimes intolerable.

We can put to use, in a more focused manner, the $135 Billion a year our country is already paying out to help in providing education, prevention, and awareness, medical & legal support, for victims of Child Abuse or Domestic Violence; using it in better more focused way so that all persons involved receive the needed skills to heal & live their life without FEAR being the one dominating scar.

These specific types of offenders often have either been victims themselves or they may have gone through some type of trauma related issue that caused this type of behavior in them. Regardless of that harm done however, behaving towards others in this type of manner is a choice. They need to feel powerful over the weaker ones around them. They make this personal decision to strike out at those they love most, yet because of their need to feed off of your intense FEAR, their attacks are most often quite brutal, sadistic, and they find enjoyment in trapping the entire family in this circle of their own power. It does not excuse the behavior and it does not make them any less responsible. The direct victims of these types of abusers deserve to be given justice for the manner of crimes committed against them.

Remember, if it were a stranger halfway around the world who committed these acts we wouldn’t think twice about putting a law in place to hold them accountable in our courts. However, when it is a family member whom you live with day in and day out, the one you depend on for your very survival, the one who may torture you for years, decades and into your future as they manipulate and accuse you as other family stands behind them. It seems no one holds them accountable and society often blames victims for being weak and living a life filled with self destructive choices.

No; we cannot let this be the life we give our children. Please help this legislation be put into action. With your name on this petition we have an opportunity to change the human past and allow it to be guide for a brighter future. You can change our world and by helping end the ‘Family Terrorist’ , help open the door for the trapped victims, allowing prosecution, restitution & assistance for the many resources they are going to need in rebuilding their lives for a more positive outcome and a possible chance at ending this cycle in their family for good.

This important piece of legislation is to be used in the prosecution for the extreme cases, those of child trafficking & terror so brutal it scars their soul, this is when it counts the most and how it will better help our society to differentiate between the words Child Abuse as a one all type of crime and this type of terroristic abuse which is truly haunting and monstrous. Yes, ‪#‎FAMILYTERRORISTACT‬, is truly the way to separate the deep levels of harm that bleeds into the lives of all those who come in contact with this vicious person. By seeing these more impacting layers of harm, then providing the much needed early intervention; we can provide the necessary support, rescue, and rebuilding necessary. You can help make a difference with a click of your mouse today.

Friends I am begging for your support on this change in how we not only prosecute but also provide healing for the entire family. I’m begging you not to turn away ever again. Hold these types of dominating monsters accountable for the harm & lifetime recovery. Not one single person has the right to take away your given right to live safe!! Do not allow these monsters to dominate through actions of extreme harm & fear any longer.

Thank you,

Patricia ‘Trish’ McKnight

Advocate/Author/Speaker

Owner; Butterfly Dreams Abuse Recovery

Creator: ‘Steps to Recovery’

Cert. Human Trafficking 101 Trainer

Il. DV Advocate Assistant

Panel Speaker St. Clair County Domestic Violence Offender Reform Program